Power operated units for shaping, punching and fastening metal are known and used in a variety of applications. In recent years, metal framing members for building structures have been used with increased frequency because of the ease of construction, cost, and fire resistance of the resulting structure. For example, metal studs are typically used in commercial structures especially for interior walls. The metal framing members for such walls must of course be fastened together. At the present time, these metal framing members are fastened together using screws. This is expensive and time consuming and therefore costly.
There are presently known and used hydraulically-powered units containing a punch and die for fastening sheet metal members together without the use of separate fasteners. Standard punches and dies for this purpose are known and used so that when the two sheet metal members that are to be joined are positioned between the punch and die, the punch will deform the metal of the two members into the die and fasten them together. The known units for accomplishing this are very large and heavy weighing approximately 35 pounds. This makes the units difficult to handle and will quickly tire the user who must perform this task repeatedly during a normal work day. The units of the prior art are thus not portable in the true sense of the word, and in some instances because of their weight, they are suspended from overhead carriers to make them easier to handle. Obviously, this limits the range of motion and use of these units, and they are not suitable for many applications, including the fastening of metal framing members, such as studs.
In addition, standard framing metal studs are channel-shaped and have a limited amount of space between the legs of the channel, and thus a large, heavy punch unit is even more difficult to handle.
There is therefore a need for a truly portable, lightweight, high pressure punch and die unit for fastening sheet metal members, such as metal framing members. There is a need for such a unit that can achieve the fastening without the use of fasteners, such as screws, rivet, etc., and which unit can be manufactured and sold at a relatively low cost. To achieve this, the unit should use standard off the shelf power units and valves.